AAN Attorney Alice Neff Lucan looks at efforts by many state legislatures to roll back Sunshine Laws. Her conclusion is that these laws and legislative efforts are troubling but not yet the end of Freedom of Information as we know it. Her advice: ask who's been requesting government information and being denied, then publish that information. "If you don't tell them about access, how is anyone to know or care?" she asks.
Rose Farley of the Dallas Observer tells the riveting story of Murdine "Baby Ruth" Berry, who fought a years-long legal battle to get back the bulk of the 100 acres her great-grandfather, a freed slave, paid a couple of bales of cotton to possess. Farley details not only Berry's long struggle to keep possession of the family farm, but the emotional scars it left on her. "If they think I'm going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere," Berry tells the Observer. "I'll stay here. I don't intend to give it up. I'm a fighting monster."
Russ Martineau, who was let go last week by City of Roses Newspapers, announces today the formation of a new sales and marketing consulting company, Ad Director.com. Martineau had managed the revenue departments for Willamette Week for the past 10 years. He resigned his position as president of the AAN board last week and is replaced by Bill Towler, publisher of City Newspaper in Rochester, N.Y.
Populist firebrand and former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller received 48.8 percent of the vote in yesterday's mayoral election in Dallas, and now faces a runoff against Tom Dunning, a well-connected businessman. Miller's campaign stressed a return to basics: fixing potholes, building parks and improving the police department.
